Just one week before, they had talked about dashing to the courthouse to get married.

But on Oct. 19, Jordan Cooper’s lips were blue as the 18-year-old Clarksville woman tried to force air into his lungs. She called 911 as she gave him CPR – not for the first time — and tried to save his life.

Cooper, 23, had overdosed on heroin mixed with fentanyl, a drug 50-100 times stronger than heroin. He had already overdosed twice that month and been revived with Narcan, a drug that usually reverses opioid overdoses.

But this time was different.

“I could tell, this time he was never coming back,” Palmer said Wednesday. “I lost the love of my life.”

In 2016, 29 people in Montgomery County died of drug overdoses. That’s almost twice as many who died in 2015. Across Tennessee, 1,186 people died of opioid overdoses.

Opioids include prescription pills such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine as well as heroin and opium, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Fentanyl is a powerful prescription pain killer that drug dealers sometimes use to cut heroin.

“In Tennessee, at least three people die each day from opioid related drug overdose,” said Montgomery County Health Department Director Joey Smith. “That’s like having six airplane crashes in a year with no surviving passengers.”

Giving law enforcement tools to save lives

While the number of opioid overdoses is growing, the number of lives being saved is rising too.

Clarksville Police issued Narcan kits to its patrol officers in September, and Clarksville Fire Rescue began using it in December, officials said. So far, both departments have used the drug seven times.

“If we continue this trend, we will exceed 630 doses of naloxone,” in 2018, on top of what law enforcement and firefighters administer, Edwards said.

Sometimes it takes multiple doses to revive someone.

“One patient received 12 doses in one encounter on the same call,” he said. EMS takes patients to the hospital, but nothing prevents them from leaving – sometimes even before the ambulance leaves, Edwards said.

Patients treated with Narcan are not usually charged with a crime because it’s more important for them to get help, officials say.

Questions linger

Jordan Cooper with fiance, Zoie Palmer(Photo: Contributed)

Cooper’s mother, Jennifer Canterbury, said she didn't know her son had been revived with Narcan more than once. Palmer called her on Oct. 19 and told her that she had found Cooper in the bathroom, blue and unresponsive, Canterbury said.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “I knew he had an affliction but he had a job, an apartment and a car and things seemed to be going well.”

Cooper began using drugs when the couple lived in Oregon, and they moved to Clarksville to get away from the people and places that might trigger him to use, Palmer said. Her mother has battled a heroin addiction off and on as long for as she can remember, and that has contributed to Cooper using, too, she said.

“I’ve been around it my whole life and never touched it,” Palmer said. “It’s not worth it.”

Palmer said Cooper never went to rehab because he didn’t have healthcare coverage but was attempting to turn his life around. Sometimes, he used heroin in secret. For an addict, it's easy to find, she said.

When he couldn't get heroin, he would sometimes use morphine, she added.

Diabetes as a cover

On Oct. 19, Cooper came home from work and went to the bathroom as usual. He asked Palmer to bring his backpack because he needed to take insulin for the Type I diabetes he has battled his whole life, she said.

Cooper often used diabetes to cover up his drug use, Palmer said. Once, he passed out while driving and blamed it on his condition, so when Palmer left him alone in the bathroom, she didn’t think much of it. Thirty minutes later, she became concerned, knocked on the door and got no response, so she went in, found Cooper unresponsive and started CPR, she said.

In opioid overdoses, patients often stop breathing. But, in Cooper's case, too much time had passed, officials said.

A slide showing the size of a lethal dose of fentanyl is displayed on a screen during an opioid prevention education program at Arcadia High School in Oak Hall, Virginia on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018.(Photo: Staff photo by Carol Vaughn)

Canterbury flew to Nashville to be with her son and say goodbye. When she learned about his prior overdoses, she called EMS and Clarksville Police wanting to know why he was allowed to leave.

She would have preferred her son to be arrested, she said.

“What we want is for what happened to our family to not happen to anyone else. This needs to be talked about … If they just would have followed through more with a known drug user, he might still be here. He might be in jail. We just don't know,” she said.

But part of him lives on. As an organ donor, he saved five people's lives, Canterbury said.

The rise of opioids

Some experts say the number of opioid prescriptions being written is a contributing factor to the overall problem.

In Montgomery County, 87 opioid prescriptions were written per 100 people, according to the most recent statistics.

The rate was much higher in neighboring Robertson County, with 126.8 prescriptions per 100, but it was nowhere near Campbell County, which ranked highest in Tennessee with 195.6 prescriptions per 100.

In Robertson County, the Springfield Police Department confirmed this week that it has obtained Narcan, but the drug hasn’t been issued to officers yet.

“We are working on a policy, and the officers will need to undergo training on how to use it,” spokesman William Watkins said.

The Robertson County Sheriff’s Office is currently in the process of obtaining the drug, according to spokesman Brad Edwards.

“It should be fielded in the very near future once we receive it and the training to administer it,” Edwards said.

In Nashville, Metro Police distributed the drug to select officers in August, one month after the department received a prescription for 790 naloxone kits, each containing two, 4 mg doses of the drug in nasal spray applicators, at a cost of just under $60,000, according to a news release.

The kits are carried by Specialized Investigations Division narcotics detectives, precinct-based undercover detectives, Flex officers from all eight precincts and patrol sergeants in all eight precincts.

“The Medical Examiner’s Office tells us that, during the first five months of (2017), at least 87 deaths were related to opiates or opioids,” Chief Steve Anderson said in the release. “That figure underscores the necessity of our officers carrying naloxone as they answer calls for service and conduct investigations across the city.

"The medication will also help protect our personnel who may unwittingly come into contact with these dangerous substances.”

Drop off boxes

It's important for anyone prescribed opioids to use them as directed and dispose of any extra by dropping it off at one of the secure boxes inside Clarksville Police Department's three stations or the Comprehensive Wellness pharmacy on Dunlop Lane, Smith said.

Everyone should do their part to protect children, he said.

"It might not be your kids but it could be their friends," he said. "We've found that a lot of teenagers can easily access unused opioids in their friend's house or their grandparent's medicine cabinet," he said.

Cooper started using drugs as a teenager, Palmer said. Despite the pain of her loss, she has no plans to leave Clarksville and return to Portland, Oregon, where she lived with Cooper.

She has a job, her own apartment and hopes to one day become a drug counselor or find another profession that helps addicts, she said.

For her, it's important that people know that while Cooper may have used drugs, he was a good person who cared about other people, and he would do almost anything to make her smile.

Remembering his antics Wednesday, she smiled as tears poured down her face.

Reporter Nicole Young contributed to this report.

Reach Reporter Stephanie Ingersoll at singersoll@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0267 and on Twitter @StephLeaf